I have a question maybe people after reading this blog can help me answer.
1) What is worship? (I take an answer to this question to be in the form of a filling in of the analysans of an illuminating bi conditional of the form: S worships T if and only if ... )
'Worship' is sometimes used as an adjective, and I'm not concerned with understanding what 'worship' means when people talk about "worship services". I'm concerned with 'worship' as a verb. Here are some paradigm worship ascriptions. Call this group A:
- Sally worships her boyfriend.
- Todd worships money
- Gina worships God.
Now I'm wondering if 'worship' in these sentences is different from 'worship' in these sentences:
- when John was appeared to by the Lord in Revelation, he fell prostrate and worshiped.
- the Israelites worshiped the Lord at Mt. Sinai.
- "Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him."
Call this group of sentences Group B. Are these uses of 'worship' different? The latter sentences appear to be true at more localized periods of time. The former appear to be about a more general attitude towards an object. Do people see what I'm getting at?
I'll be happy to analyze 'worship' once I get clear on whether there are two different senses of 'worship' in Groups A and B or not. If people want to take a stab at an analysis anyway, that'd be welcome as well.